Official Speculation Thread '20-'21 VII: Magic Expected To Retain Core

[ogmagicfan]

Unless some last minute deals went out, seems we’ve seen all the moves the Magic will make till the offseason.

[Def Swami]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

[PrimeThyme]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

Clark/Aminu are both gone. I'm guessing he will be the backup or starting 4?

[BlueMagician]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

I like Birch, but they have to see what Bamba can do as a starter.

[SOUL]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

Cliff probably threatened to leave mid-season a la Skiles if Birch was moved!

[NavalAviator94]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

If Cliff plays Birch over Carter & Bamba he's just asking to be fired.

[MagicFan4Lyfe]

I must say for the first time in a long we have direction. Whether we are successful or not is open for debate but at least we made a decision.

[thelead]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

This might be the worst team we've ever fielded for a long stretch. Without Fultz and JI, this is like starting a franchise from scratch with nothing but bench players... and not even good ones.

These trades and this season should be judged on who we draft this summer.

[VFX]

Also, ray of sunshine here, how f***ing stupid does Martin's look now for his presser earlier this week?

"When healthy we could be the next Heat"

Next minute....

He unknowingly **** himself over with those idiotic statements because AG knew he was full of **** and requested a trade less than 24hrs later. Martins possibly helped us pick a direction because of how stupid he is.

Probably the only time he’s given a statement that actually helped this organization.

[MagicFan4Lyfe]

I also think Clifford is actually the ideal coach to teach a young team. We could end up with the next Vaughn or Skiles like before- and Clifford can help shape an identity and focus on defense.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

Surprised to see both Ross and Birch still on the team. I wonder how the Magic handle this Carter Jr, Birch, Bamba jam.

How ready is this forum to see Birch starting the rest of the season?

Cliff probably threatened to leave mid-season a la Skiles if Birch was moved!

deals can trickle in all night so it's not done yet. Magic just have to be in line on the call center. The fact that Celtics haven't cleared a roster spot for fournier makes me think that will somehow become a 3rd team deal

[ogmagicfan]

I think that's the point though - he teaches young players to learn how to play NBA defense. I'm less concerned about the offense now with a young team. And as a coach, ofcourse he's going to play the best player right? Now management has taken the vets off this team so it's clearly development time.

For a franchise who has been a bottom 10 offensive team every year post-Dwight. I can’t agree. Basketball is two sides, apart from the fact that offense sells seats and interest. Not devaluing teaching defense, however why we have to commit to a coach only able to be proficient on one side of the ball as if there aren’t other coaches who can teach defense along with offense/better at development with young players. There’s a reason why some posters are clamoring for Ennis, Bacon, Ross etc to be traded. Because knowing Cliff he’ll start them over the young guns.

I don’t agree with just bluntly playing whoever the best player is at the moment. Coaching is complex. Some players need to play through their mistakes, specifically younger players. Clifford is known for giving a short leash. Also isn’t favorable for a team rebuilding and trying to get the best picks possible when the only thing on the coach’s mind is getting pointless wins that lead to mediocrity. There has to be a bigger picture in mind and Cliff isn’t the coach to execute the next steps in the Magic rebuild for us frankly.

I think Cliff has his warts but I think he's a good coach for a young team, generally speaking that is.

That being said, who's better than cliff to bring a young team(like the Magic will be) through a rebuild? We've tried the young former player route and failed miserably. This team needed discipline which Cliff did bring and I think we all knew at some point we were going to need a coach that had more of an offensive skillset.

I'm certainly open to ideas!

I think it’ll be easier to evaluate once the offseason comes around, whoever gets the coaching job here will kinda be set up for failure the first couple seasons so I wouldn’t be surprised to see established coaches staying away and us having to swing it on a young assistant/coach.

[NavalAviator94]

There's no way Steve Clifford is the coach in '21-'22.

Isn't he exactly the kind of coach you want at this point?

is he? i dont see a whole lot of development or even trying to develop our young players.

Certainly debatable. I think injuries played a part in that too.

[KillMonger]

With Gordon gone our walking dead are:
RJ Humpton
Gary Harris
Dwayne Bacon
Okeke
Wendell Carter Jr

well at least it’s safe to say we won’t win any game any more


I really don't see any point of watching often any games any time soon. We are back at square one, 2013, and waiting for ping pong balls and overtalking about how college prospect dribble the ball and how his shooting form looks like.
It's amazing how we menaged to fu** up rebuild to the point where in 10 years we have 0 assets to build future around other than 2021 pick, who , itself, isn't even asset, but potential asset.

Raptors media had inside joke how nobody watches Magic playoff games. You tihnk someboy will watch G league squad?

Nah.

Let's not fool ourselfs, how many of us actually watched anything that was going on from 2012-2015. Especially 2012 and 2013. Ghoust threads, and watching postups for Big Baby weren't really must watch tv.

I'm Magic fan, ofc i'll stick around, but i'm not killing my sleep to watch Dwayne Bacon take 20 jumpers a night.

thats fair considering the situation

[thelead]

There's no way Steve Clifford is the coach in '21-'22.

Is his contract up this summer?

Just looked it up and he signed through next year. Will be very interesting to see what happens.

[Furinkazan]

IIm bitching a lot about dumb and dumber but...hey at least we didnt trade Harden for a fkn Olynik

[thelead]

IIm bitching a lot about dumb and dumber but...hey at least we didnt trade Harden for a fkn Olynik

Houston is a complete train wreck.

[D12VCMagic]

We got a better haul for Aaron Gordon than the Rockets did for Oladipo, wow.

[tiderulz]

I also think Clifford is actually the ideal coach to teach a young team. We could end up with the next Vaughn or Skiles like before- and Clifford can help shape an identity and focus on defense.

i want a coach that is going to both work with PLAY the youth so we see what we have. not be 3 years after drafting a player and not knowing whether he is really a player or a scrub. I dont have faith in Clifford for that. Even if it shows a player has talent but not motivation. We really dont know what we have with Bamba.

[SOUL]

Interesting teams like Raps/New Orleans/etc didn't try a specific direction but actually helps our pick this year since Chicago will be in the mix for the play in.